How To Price For The Economy

Due to the struggling economy it is easy to up you prices to make up for a lower number of clients. According to Business iHub this strategy is actually directly opposite to what it needs to be. Boosting sales during a slumping economy is about more than just coming up with the perfect slogan and getting your name out there.

Brides are going to be price shopping so the first thing you need to do is figure out who your competition is and how they price. The next step is to change your prices to be just a tiny bit less than the competition. According to the article by Business iHub this pricing strategy will actually boost your sales by 10% or more. Pricing strategies often are the final deciding factor for a bride if she is torn between two companies. What do you think? How has your pricing affected your wedding business?

[quote name=”Bradley Patten”]How do you reconcile this advice with the more general theme of sticking away from competing on price alone?[/quote]Good call, Bradley!

Here’s the thing: I’m not a black and white kind of girl. In fact, I drive Jeff NUTS because I can almost always find an exception to every rule or find something valuable in each side of an argument.

The article we’re highlighting in this blog post represents the other side of the price and value argument.

So the question is: do we price based on our competition (which is focusing on price) or do we ignore the “price question” and focus on value?

As we’ve expressed elsewhere, I encourage NOT focusing on price and focusing on the BENEFIT of what you bring to your clients instead. The more you focus on price, the bigger an issue it becomes.

However, some pros are really and truly struggling to book [i]anything[/i] right now. They aren’t communicating their value well enough to get their asking price.

As a general rule of thumb: if your closing rate is less than 50% and you don’t have enough leads to make the income you want, drop your prices. This would be a good time to let competitor pricing inform your own prices.

However, this price drop should be [i]temporary[/i], only until you can improve your marketing and sales enough to experience increased demand. Once your closing rate gets to 80% or above, it’s time to raise your prices again.

You can always test out a price decrease and judge the results for yourself. One photographer had prices that were far higher than the average in his area and was having trouble making his numbers. He dropped his price to just above average and immediately started booking again.

It’s not the ideal strategy, but it’s a strategy that works and that I would definitely consider in a pinch. From there, I’d focus on improving my marketing message and service to become irresistible enough to command my ideal price.

All good. I just wanted to push you a bit on your break from your standard song book. The rule of thumb you introduce here (and in another post) seems like a good one. I am a bit surprised you didn’t take the opportunity to stress the importance of accurately identifying who your competitors are on a value level though

i.e. don’t under cut all competitors, only undercut equivalent competitors.i.e. Make the Ferrari cheaper than the Lambourghini, not the Toyota.

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Hi! We are Stephanie and Jeff Padovani, a husband-wife power business duo.

We empower wedding professionals who are awesome at what they do…but not so good at marketing and promoting…with strategies that will double your bookings and allow you to increase your price up to 70% and still book your calendar solid.